Eric Nyffeler and Grand Teton National Park

Feb 17, 2016

Eric Nyffeler (aka Doe Eyed) is known for his gritty geometry, analog textures, and mid-century whimsy. Eric specializes in commercial and editorial illustration, screen printed posters, and branding. He is currently based in the American Midwest, but has been known to occasionally wash ashore on either coastline. We've been a fan of Eric's colorful illustrations and clever posters for years. We're thrilled to have had the chance to team up with him for the parks series! We recently had a chance to catch up with Eric to learn a little more about his process.

How did you get into poster design?I got into poster design in kind of a roundabout, backwards way. Ever since I started my first band when I was 15 or 16, I loved designing terrible xerox and parody posters and fliers for our shows. As my bands slowly got better, we found ourselves opening up for national bands, and I jumped at the chance to design posters for those shows. Apparently I was making some alright posters because I found myself being asked to design posters for shows my bands weren't playing. Everything seemed to have snowballed from there!

It's not like I can sneak a minotaur or a skull-face into a real mountain, or force an optical illusion into a forest. I focused instead on finding a happy medium between realism and stylization.

Do you have a personal connection to Grand Teton?My family went camping there one summer, but it was so long ago that I barely remember it. However, after researching and working on the poster the last few months, I've found myself overwhelmed with a desire for a return trip.

Is there any significance to the wolf we see in your poster?While doing research on the Grand Tetons, I learned the unfortunate history how wolves were completely eradicated from the region by the early 1900s. Conservationists began to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone in the mid 90s, which eventually migrated to the Grand Tetons. The re-establishment of the wolves has confirmed that every indigenous mammal species is once again living in the park.

You're primarily known as a gig poster artist. Can you talk about some of the challenges involved with designing what could be described as a travel poster?My gigposters typically tend to focus on visual puns or an unexpected twist of perspective, which is hard to integrate into a poster focused on a real world location. It's not like I can sneak a minotaur or a skull-face into a real mountain, or force an optical illusion into a forest. Without being able to build the poster around any sort of secondary meaning or content, I focused instead on finding a happy medium between realism and stylization.

Can you take us through each step of your process from sketch to completion?Sketch -> Scan -> Illustrator -> Print -> Photocopier -> Scan -> Print -> Lacquer thinner -> Scan -> Repeat -> Cry for hours because I didn't make better plans for how to do separations

What do you dig most about the National Parks?I can occasionally be a bit of a misanthropic curmudgeon, so I love being able to hide from civilization and relax with some animals and trees and giant rocks.

What other projects are on your radar for 2016? Anything that you're really stoked on!?I just launched my new website/brand, which took me almost a year to put together in the off hours between other projects and client work. I'm really excited to continue to move forward with my shift from gigposters to illustration.